Turk tax revenue a risk
ANKARA (Reuters) – Poor levels of tax revenues collected in Turkey this year pose a serious risk to efforts to reach year-end budget targets, a State Planning Organization report obtained by Reuters yesterday said. The report said collection levels of corporation tax, value-added tax and special consumption tax were showing a poor performance. The State Planning Organization is part of the prime minister’s office and focuses on economic development. In August, the Finance Ministry slashed its forecast for the 2007 budget deficit to 8.527 billion lira ($6.55 billion) from 16.83 billion lira due to high non-tax revenues including privatization proceeds. «It can be seen that the level of tax revenue collection poses significant risks for reaching the year-end budget targets,» said the report, based on central government budget data for the first half. However, Finance Ministry officials say there is no problem in tax collection and that the year-end budget target will be met. Economy officials told Reuters on Tuesday that Turkey expected to make savings of 2.5 billion lira ($1.9 billion) in the fourth quarter through a freeze on some investment spending in the budget. They said the freeze would affect major bodies such as the education, health and justice ministries plus water and road works, but not state companies and social security institutions.
